Monza red tide now maxed – As recently as 2022, you could wander up to the royal park in Monza on the second September weekend to find countless ticket touts selling passes for the Formula One Italian Grand Prix. The price? Not much more than face value either, given the lack of demand from the Italian masses.
Yet the Italian Grand Prix is one of the finest F1 spectacles around, with its high speed circuit configuration and generally baking European summer weather conditions, a day of racing in the spectacular woodland setting is just the tonic before school returns the following week.
There’s the old banking to see from yesteryear, and the game to evade the security guards preventing access to one of the most lethal sections of any motor racing circuit ever built is all part of the afternoon’s fun. Fans flock to the wooden bleachers between the Ascari chicane and the once fearsome Parabolica corner searching for shade for what could be a baking hot afternoon.
Monza finally sells out
Yet something has changed this year. The Italian Grand Prix hosted by the Automobile Club of Italy is now confirming that tickets for Sunday, September 7, are officially sold out. The race is expected to draw around 350,000 spectators across the weekend, with the grandstands drenched in Ferrari red regardless of how the team is performing on track.
Ferrari enters its home race without a victory in 2025, Charles Leclerc delivering five podiums before the summer break but unable to mount a serious challenge to McLaren, who hold a commanding 299-point advantage in the Constructors’ standings. Still, the lure of Monza goes far beyond current form, with the circuit’s history and unpredictable races ensuring its place as one of Formula 1’s defining events.
Charles Leclerc will arrive in Monza as last year’s race winner, when a brave strategic call helped him climb from fourth on the grid to secure his second triumph at the Autodromo Nazionale. His first came back in 2019, in only his debut year with Ferrari, making the royal park a place of particular resonance for him.
This time, Charles will be joined in Ferrari colours by Lewis Hamilton, who has endured a difficult first campaign in red. The seven-time world champion has yet to record a podium in 2025, a stark contrast to his Monza pedigree, which includes seven pole positions and five race victories. For the tifosi, once sworn enemies of Hamilton during Mercedes’ dominant years, the sight of him chasing glory in Ferrari colours could provide the season with a dramatic twist.
Lewis boo’d at his first Monza win
It was some six years after Lewis’ debuted for McLaren when he claimed his first F1 victory in Monza. Having been crushed by his team mate, Jenson Button in Spa the previous race weekend, Hamilton bounced back in northern Italy and it was to be Lewis’ final season with McLaren in 2012 and his bombshell announcement of his move to Mercedes was just days away.
Starting from pole position, Hamilton controlled the race from lights to flag. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa provided the tifosi with some fleeting hope, but it was Sergio Pérez in a Sauber who applied the most pressure late on, slicing his way past the red cars on fresher tyres to finish second. Hamilton held firm, though, claiming his first Monza win and one of McLaren’s last great moments before their long winter of discontent.
For Hamilton, it was a pivotal victory. It reminded the paddock of his raw speed and race craft, even as contract talks with McLaren stalled and speculation about a move to Mercedes gathered steam. In hindsight, it was the perfect parting gift to Woking before embarking on an era of dominance that would rewrite the F1 record books.
For Ferrari fans in 2012, Hamilton’s win at Monza was the stuff of nightmares. The tifosi packed the grandstands in their hundreds of thousands only to watch the man in silver outclass their heroes on their own sacred ground. He was, at that time, the pantomime villain for the massed Italian spectators — the driver to be booed, the interloper who dared to dance on the Scuderia’s stage.
Record number of fans
Fast-forward to 2025 and Hamilton is no longer the enemy. He now wears Ferrari red himself, tasked with delivering the victories that once eluded him in Monza when the tifosi viewed him through suspicious eyes. For those same fans, this is the sporting equivalent of the Big Bad Wolf moving in with grandma. The question is whether Hamilton can provide the fairy-tale ending — a Ferrari win at Monza — or whether the script for him this season is just another miss.
While Ferrari has endured ups and downs, Monza’s support has never wavered. The tifosi will turn out in force once more, hoping their drivers can produce a victory that would transform a difficult year into something altogether more memorable. Last season’s attendance surpassed 335,000, and officials are confident that this year’s total could establish a new record.
Tickets remain available for Friday and Saturday, covering free practice, qualifying, and support races such as Formula 2, Formula 3, and the Porsche Supercup. But the Sunday crowd is already guaranteed to be at capacity, with the promise of an atmosphere unrivalled in Formula 1.
General Tullio Del Sette, Extraordinary Commissioner of the Automobile Club of Italy, hailed the achievement: “The expected large turnout, which in all probability will allow us to surpass last year’s attendance record, represents a recognition for the entire Italian Federation and confirms the central role of the Italian Grand Prix in the history of world motors.”
Hope springs eternal in Italy
The Judge notes that Monza has once again proven itself immune to the laws of form and logic. Ferrari may arrive with fewer points than McLaren’s catering staff after their mid-season appraisal, yet the faithful will flock in their hundreds of thousands to wave flags, light flares, and remind the world that hope springs eternal in Italy.
It is a rare phenomenon: a sporting crowd more reliable than the sporting result. If Leclerc or Hamilton can somehow conjure a win, the scenes will border on an operatic triumph. If not, expect the jury in red to console themselves in the usual way — with a deafening chorus of the Italian anthem anyway, copious amounts of prosecco, and perhaps a few selective boos for whoever dares stand on the top step ahead of Ferrari.
The Monza crowd is a unique example of Formula One demonstrating national pride. Ferrari are the national; racing team of Italy and their glorious history is handed down by word of mouth from mothers and fathers to their bambinos. Regardless of the form of their red liveried team and drivers, the tifosi in the royal park are testament to the enduring fact that Ferrari fans have an unshakeable optimism that makes all others look like cynics?
Red Bull shareholders now making F1 driver lineup decisions
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That said, Verstappen had done his fair share of stoking the fires of suspicion, by refusing week after week to give a direct answer when asked about where he would be racing in future. Now the Verstappen drama is resolved, the attention will fall upon his team mate Yuki Tsunoda who is more than struggling with the difficult RB21.
Tsunoda with just seven points since joining Red Bull in round three this year, is heading to become the Red Bull team mate who makes the least contribution to the team’s championship since Verstappen joined the team in 2016. He replaced Liam Lawson, who was initially recruited to replace Mexican driver Sergio Perez, but survived just two race weekends…. READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
